A reminder

“When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, make this short speech to yourself: I’m getting up now to do this business of a man; and am I out of humour for going about that I was made for, and for the sake of which I was sent into the world? Was I then designed for nothing but to doze and keep warm beneath the counterpane? Well! But this is a comfortable way of living. Granting that: will you born only for pleasure? Will you never to do anything? Is not action the end of your being? Pray look upon the plants and birds, the ants, spiders, and bees, and you will see them all exerting their nature, and busy in their station. Pray, shall not a man act like a man? Why do you not realise your faculties, and hasten to act according to your nature? For all that, there is no living without rest. True; but nature has fixed a limit to eating and drinking, and here, too, you generally exceed bounds, and go beyond what is sufficient. Whereas in business you are asked to do less than is in your power. In earnest, you have no true love for yourself. If you had, you would love your nature and honour her wishes. Now, when a man loves his trade, how he will sweat and drudge to perform to perfection. But you are your nature less than a turner does the art of turning, a dancing master the art of dancing. And as for wealth and popularity, how eagerly are they pursued by the vain and the covetous? All these people when they greatly desire anything, seek to retain it, might and main, and will scarcely allow themselves necessary refreshment. And now, can you think the exercise of social duties less valuable than these petty amusement, and worth less exertion?”